World War 2 Fantasy / Sci-Fi / Horror Novels?

[Bob the Trencherman]

I'm really looking forward to the upcming video game "Operation Darkness" which mixes traditional WW2 stories with fantasy elements like wizards, vampires, dragons, werewolves and more. I've also always been interested in Nazi occultism and such like was seen in Hellboy, so that got me wondering if there are any good fantasy or sci books that involve or are centered around World War 2. I've found a few browsing on Amazon but havn't read any yet. Could you folks reccomend something like this? Thanks!

 

[Werthead]

Christopher Priest's The Separation is a brilliant WWII SF story, one of the best SF novels published this century (so far).

Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series is an amusing SF action-adventure alternate-history story (aliens invade Earth...in 1942!). Robert Harris' Fatherland is a really good post-German-victory-in-WWII story as well.

 

[chrispenycate]

How about the Harry Turtledove "Darkness" series? You need to know the second world war to recognise the inversions (the north african campaign in polar conditions, for example) but you get dragons and behemoths replacing planes and tanks, and the Manhattan project in sympathetic magic…

 

[Simian]

One that springs to mind is Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. Not concerned with the occult, but it's a blend of war story, science fiction novel and autobiography (sort of), and is very good indeed.

 

[The Ace]

One series I enjoyed, now available as a graphic novel is 2000 AD's 'Fiends of the Eastern Front,' about a group of Romanian (of course) vampires fighting in Operation Barbarossa.

It was a bit of a departure for 2000 AD but very enjoyable nevertheless.

 

[j d worthington]

There's also F. Paul Wilson's The Keep, which is well worth reading (and don't let yourself be put off by the film version, which wandered off into La-La land rather seriously....)

Also, Michael Moorcock frequently brings WWII into his work, including The Dreamthief's Daughter (which combines the Von Bek and Elric storylines), as well as The Dragon in the Sword (at least, to some degree, as one of the main characters is driven by his desire to find a way to stop the Nazis), "The Pleasure Garden of Felipe Sagittarius", etc.

 

[paranoid marvin]

There's also F. Paul Wilson's The Keep, which is well worth reading (and don't let yourself be put off by the film version, which wandered off into La-La land rather seriously....)

Also, Michael Moorcock frequently brings WWII into his work, including The Dreamthief's Daughter (which combines the Von Bek and Elric storylines), as well as The Dragon in the Sword (at least, to some degree, as one of the main characters is driven by his desire to find a way to stop the Nazis), "The Pleasure Garden of Felipe Sagittarius", etc.

yeah , ditto here The Keep , a great read about Nazis and the supernatural

 

[Rane Longfox]

Not sure if this really qualifies, but Tad Williams' Otherland series has a very big WW2 story-arc... at least, that's what it starts off as...

 

[murphy]

Barbara Hambly's Suncross duology consisting of The Rainbow Abyss and The Magicians of Night. About the Nazi's search for a magical solution.

 

[Culhwch]

Not sure if this really qualifies, but Tad Williams' Otherland series has a very big WW2 story-arc... at least, that's what it starts off as...

It's been some time since I read it but I thought that was WWI?

 

[Connavar]

Declare is World Fantasy award winning book by Tim Powers.

Its a fantasy/supernatural twist on WW2/cold War era spy story. Most of the story are set in WW2 era. Its not about the war itself but spy side,darker fantasy like side of it.

Its not 100% fantasy, if you dont hate spy fiction i think its a very good read. Its like 50% spy story and 50% fantasy. Its full occultism so if you liked the sort of thing its for you.

Tim Powers is also IMHO the best modern Fantasy writer. You must try him if you like fantasy.

 

[Bob the Trencherman]

Thanks for all the suggestions! If there are more out there, keep them coming . Here's a few others I found on Amazon.Com but havn't read yet, in case anyone else is interested:

The Wolf's Hour by Robert McCammon - Michael Gallatin is a British spy. Handsome, intelligent, cunning, seductive, he is everything James Bond could ever hope to be...except Gallatin is a werewolf.

Caught up in the troubles of WWII, desperately trying to uncover and stop a top-secret Nazi experiment, Gallatin meets a wide array of interesting and quirky characters, some of them friendly, some of them deadly. He must also come to grips with what he is, and face his own inner enemies...before time runs out.

Lammas Night by Katherine Kurtz - What Magic Can Stop Adolf Hitler -- History's Most Evil Black Magician?
The year is 1940. Hitler's Germany is about to employ the secret arts of evil witchcraft to destroy England. What can stop them?

It is the mission of John Graham, colonel in British Intelligence, to stop the onslaught of evil with an extraordinary strategy that defies all the rules of twentieth-century warfare: Unite the different witches' covens throughout England, drawing upon powers that reach back through dark centuries, in a ritual of awesome sacrifice on the first night of August.

Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson - Heroes Steve (a werewolf) and Virginia (his witch wife) fight against a demon being used as a superweapon in World War II, stop an elemental college prank gone amok, confront a succubus/incubus on their romantic getaway, and enter the hell dimension to save their daughter.

Knights of the Blood by Katherine Kurtz and Scott MacMillan - Start of a series that sees an order Crusader Knights-turned-vampires battling a sinister order of Nazi vampires.

 

[Urlik]

One series I enjoyed, now available as a graphic novel is 2000 AD's 'Fiends of the Eastern Front,' about a group of Romanian (of course) vampires fighting in Operation Barbarossa.

It was a bit of a departure for 2000 AD but very enjoyable nevertheless.

I remember that series well
I don't know about it being a departure for 2000AD. as I remember, it fitted in well with the other series running at the same time and complemented them well.

as for other WWII scfi fi, I too would have to go with Harry Turtledove's World War